SXSW 2012 featured three major events - music, film, and interactive. The interactive portion from March 9-13 in Austin, Texas brought together 17,000 participants, 5,000 startups, and 200 conferences to discuss the future of digital technology. Popular keynotes discussed expanding human intelligence, the democratization of innovation, and replacing fear with curiosity. Emerging location-based apps like Highlight that connect users to nearby friends and interests were a major trend, as was the growing importance of visual content and social TV. Content curation was also highlighted as an important part of managing today's information abundance.

1. South by Southwest 2012

2. What is SXSW?
South by Southwest: annual music, film and interactive conferences and festival
9th -18th of March in Austin, Texas
3 events in 1: music, film, interactive

3. Amazing atmosphere
Uber pedicab
A town criere for your tweets
Hootsuite Party Bus

4. What is SXSW Interactive?
The 19th South by Southwest Interactive festival
From the 9th to the 13th of March in Austin, Texas
Recognised as one of the major annual events
dedicated to the future digital usage.
Gathered around 17 000 participants, 5000 startups
and 200 conferences.

5. Best Keynotes
Ray Kurzweil, the legendary visionary has made an
impressive keynote in front of a huge crowd about
« expanding our intelligence without limits ». He shared
with the audience his vision of the future.
« What we see today is the
democratisation of
Innovation »
« You are what you eat but you also are what you think »

6. Best Keynotes
Ray Kurzweil

7. Best Keynotes
Danah Boyd, researcher at Microsoft, made a fabulous
presentation about the power of fear in networked publics. She
covered the culture of fear and the consequences of visibility.
Conclusion of her keynote: Replace fear of
the unknown with curiosity.
« Fear is used consciously to control public and encourage them to do things. »

8. Danah Boyd

9. Keynotes
The view from inside Rainn Wilson’s brainstem
was the most hilarious keynote of SXSW festival.
He spoke about bringing altruism to the web and
allowing spiritual conversations.
« Sharing photos and art is the future of the
web »

10. Best Keynotes
Rainn Wilson’s

11. Best Keynotes
Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media. His
keynote create more value than you capture.
Build a sustainable business and a sustainable economy.
His advice for young entrepreneur was to
work on stuff that matters, be proud of it
and find people that are just as passionate
about what you do as you are.
« create value for the society and make the world a better place to fill in the needs. »

12. The future trends
was the application that everybody was speaking about and it could
be the next big thing. This application allows you to know if one of
your friend, a friend of your friends or someone who shares affinity
with you is nearby. Highlight relies on Facebook and the GPS of
your smartphone.
Last year, Robert Scoble pegged Highlight as the next “hottest thing at
SXSW,” and several other bloggers have since crowned it such.

14. The future trends
Local Mind et Forecast applications were also the big trends of the festival.
Local Mind consists in asking people already in a location what do they
think about it and what is the atmosphere.
Forecast allows publishing what you will do tonight/tomorrow and your
friends can choose whether to accompany you by clicking on me too.

18. SXSW 2012, the year of infectious optimism
- This year the biggest trend is what can be described as passive location-based apps and
services. Telling users about relevant people. (based on mutual friends and mutual
interests) in the vicinity of offering a way to connect with those users: Highlight , Sonar ,
Glancee , Forecast , Banjo.
- Photo frenzy isn’t just a passing phase. We’re seeing a consumer movement toward a
more visual culture brought on by technology and media. In age of Pinterest ,
Instagram, Brands need an image strategy
- Social TV who owns social TV, how to bring brands to the party and how different
departments at television networks are becoming more integrated to make social
more successful.
- Content curation is here to stay: We’re living in an era of content abundance and
curation is now part of the content equation. Check out scoopit special SXSW 2012

20. Contacts
the social bureau : www.thesocialbureau.com
Delphine Remy-Boutang: @delphineRB
Orange: www.live.orange.com / www.live.orange.fr
French Web: www.Frenchweb.fr